With the rapid development of communications technologies and the mobile phone industry, a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone or a communication tablet, plays a more important role in people's lives. Different requirements of people in various aspects such as social interaction, shopping, entertainment, work, and study can be met by using various software applications. However, a mobile terminal that is used by an individual usually stores a relatively large amount of data, information, or the like that relates to personal privacy and secrets, for example, a short message service (SMS) message, a call record, a message of instant messaging software, and bank transaction information. Using a mobile phone as an example, when a user does not have the mobile phone at hand because the user goes out for sports and it is inconvenient for the user to carry the mobile phone, or because the user needs to temporarily lend the mobile phone to another person, it is highly possible that some data relating to personal privacy of the user, for example, data that is stored on the mobile phone by the user and a personal notification message that is newly received, may be disclosed.
In a first prior art, a mobile phone is locked in a manner of setting a password, and another user cannot view data on the mobile phone. This can protect privacy of a user. However, in a scenario that another user needs to use the mobile phone, for example, borrow the mobile phone to make a call, search for a phone number of a colleague, or play a mobile phone game, this manner of full locking completely prevents the another user from using the mobile phone. In a second prior art, user privacy is protected in a manner of fully disabling some applications on a mobile phone, for example, disabling an SMS message function. This also restricts another user from using a function of the mobile phone, which is not helpful for making full use of the mobile phone.